Roy Lichtenstein meets Rene Lalique in the art of Michael Joplin.
Comic-book motifs, particularly covers from cowboy and romance titles of the `40s and `50s, abound in the glass platters and bowls created by the Tucson-based glass artisan.
”I call it punk-Indian deco,” says Joplin, noting his Southwestern roots and use of hot, pure colors in adapting comic art to the glass medium.
Mindscape Gallery, 1506 Sherman Ave., Evanston, features Joplin`s work, including a 28-inch platter ($3,300) and a bowl depicting a fistfight
($3,000).
”I don`t stick with any one character,” he says. ”Romance is one area, the boy-meets-girl stuff from the girl`s standpoint. And then there`s the hero stuff-the cowboys, anything larger than life back in the `40s, when good was pure.”
That Joplin should take a rock `n` roll approach to studio glass shouldn`t come as a surprise; one of his sisters was singer Janis Joplin, who died in 1970 of a drug overdose and her influence runs deep.
”She was a painter to begin with. She started singing so she could buy paint. So I always saw her as a painter rather than a singer.
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With his quirky approach, Joplin hopes to make his own artistic impression. ”I just want my work to show that I have fun doing it.”